The Brazilian variant of the coronavirus, referred to as the P1 variant or the Manaus variant, is another variant of the coronavirus that has gotten loud in recent weeks. Is the Brazilian variant more contagious than other Coronavirus variants? Why is the Brazilian variant worrying for scientists? Here's what we already know about it.

Brazilian variant of the coronavirusSARS-CoV-2 has been identified in Brazil - it was first discovered in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state. It is sometimes referred to as a variant of Manaus, and also with the abbreviation P1.

Research among blood donors and tests of available laboratory samples suggest that it appeared as early as July 2022. The presence of the Brazilian variant of the coronavirus has so far been confirmed in less than 30 countries.

Brazilian variant of the coronavirus - is it dangerous?

So far it is also unclear whether this variant is responsible for the skyrocketing increase in new COVID-19 cases in Brazil and the increasing mortality from this disease - as calculated by the daily Correio Braziliense, in a country with 206 million inhabitants of the coronavirus kills an average of every 45 seconds. According to Our World in Data, a registry maintained by the University of Oxford, Brazil is the second country in the world after the United States in terms of the number of deaths caused by Covid-19. Since the beginning of the pandemic, nearly 260,000 have died there. sick, and a total of over 10 million people were infected.

The Brazilian variant of the coronavirusis worrying due to its mutations. One of them, N501Y (the UK variant also has it), can make the virus spread more easily. In turn, the E484K mutation may render this variant resistant to antibodies raised against earlier forms of the virus.

As Dr. Tomasz Wołkowicz from the National Institute of Public He alth - National Institute of Hygiene explained in an interview with PAP, the Brazilian variant of the coronavirus is also one of those variants worth monitoring, and such monitoring is necessary to find out whether they are epidemiologically significant, i.e. become more infectious or more virulent.

They are also examined for diagnostics to see if there are variants that may givefalse-negative results in some tests, and to determine if newly emerging variants have the ability to infect vaccinated people, as if "escaping the vaccine".

Brazilian variant of the coronavirus - symptoms of infection

There is no data to suggest that the symptoms of the British coronavirus variant are different from those of the other variants. The available information indicates that these symptoms are primarily fever, dry cough and fatigue. Less common is a sore throat, muscle pain, headache, diarrhea, loss of taste or smell, conjunctivitis, rash or discoloration of the fingers and toes called covid fingers.

Brazilian variant of the coronavirus - infectivity and mortality

Is the Brazilian Coronavirus Variant More Contagious? That this may be the case is suggested by preliminary research. Scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Sao Paulo estimate that the variant marked with the symbol P.1 is 1.4 to 2.2 times easier to transfer than previous variants of the coronavirus.

Research also shows that since variant P.1 began spreading in Manaus, the risk of death for people with COVID-19 has increased by up to 80%. It is not known, however, that this is due to the specificity of this variant of the coronavirus or the lack of adequate medical care.

Brazilian variant of the coronavirus and the COVID-19 vaccine

It is not yet known whether all current COVID-19 vaccines are effective against the Brazilian variant of the coronavirus. A recent study by scientists from the University of Texas, published in the New England Medical Journal, found that the P.1 variant was successfully neutralized by the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

During testing, scientists created artificial viruses containing mutations characteristic of each variant and applied them to plasma samples from 15 vaccinated people at least 2 weeks after the second dose. All viruses were effectively neutralized, although the strength of the antibody's interaction varied. In the case of variant P.1. it was 17 percent. lower than in the "standard" version of SARS-CoV-2.

Preliminary studies also suggest that the Astra-Zeneca vaccine is also effective against the Brazilian variant.

Brazilian variant of the coronavirus and recoveries

The Brazilian variant of the coronavirus, as research initially suggests, can infect not only people who have not previously suffered from COVID-19, but also survivors, resistant to earlier variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is possible due to a mutation E484K, making it immune to the antibodies producedafter infection.

This data was recently provided by specialists in Sao Paulo, based on the results of laboratory tests. They were conducted by prof. Wiliam M. De Souza, virologist at the University of Sao Paulo, and his team.

The plasma of convalescents was used in the research - it turned out that the antibodies contained in them showed as much as six times less ability to neutralize the Brazilian variant of the coronavirus. This means that even survivors who are resistant to other variants of the coronavirus can re-infect with COVID-19 if they come into contact with a new variant of the pathogen.

According to a study by researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Sao Paulo, survivors are likely to be 25 to 61 percent re-infected with the Brazilian variant.

Probe

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Infectious diseases